Search results for: constant rate of strain (CRS)

Authors: Amir Mohtarami, Hadi Kandjani

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The amount of business-critical information in enterprises is growing at an extraordinary rate, and the ability to catalog that information and properly protect it using traditional security mechanisms is not keeping pace. Alongside the Information Technology (IT), information security needs a holistic view in enterprise. In other words, a comprehensive architectural approach is required, focusing on the information itself, understanding what the data are, who owns it, and which business and regulatory policies should be applied to the information. Enterprise Architecture Frameworks provide useful tools to grasp different dimensions of IT in organizations. Usually this is done by the layered views on IT architecture, but not requisite security attention has been held in this frameworks. In this paper, after a brief look at the Enterprise Architecture (EA), we discuss the issue of security in the overall enterprise IT architecture. Due to the increasing importance of security, a rigorous EA program in an enterprise should be able to consider security architecture as an integral part of its processes and gives a visible roadmap and blueprint for this aim.

Keywords: enterprise architecture, architecture framework, security architecture, information systems

Procedia PDF Downloads 685

Authors: Ariyan S. Araghi, Guy C. Jackson, Stephen J. Bonsor

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Materials & Methods: A systematic literature search was undertaken using pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systemic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement. Several databases were used to search for randomised control trials and longitudinal cohort studies, which were published less than thirty years ago. A total of 54 studies met the predefined inclusion criteria. Four studies reviewed the success, survival, and failure characteristics of zirconia framework resin retained bridges, whilst two reviewed non-precious metal resin retained bridges. Results: The analysis of the studies revealed an overall survival rate of 95.9% for zirconia-based restorations compared to 90.7% for non-precious metal frameworks. Non-precious metal resin retained bridges displayed a higher overall failure rate of 11.9% compared to 4.6% for zirconia-based restorations in the analysed papers. The most frequent complications were wing debonding for the non-precious metal wing group, whereas substructure fracture and veneering ceramic fracture were more prevalent for the zirconia arm of the study. Conclusion: Both types of resin retained bridges provide effective medium to long-term survival. Zirconia-based frameworks will provide marginally increased success and survival and greatly improved aesthetics. However, catastrophic failure is more likely with zirconia-based restorations. Non-precious metal is time tested but performs worse than its zirconia counterpart with regards to longevity; it does not exhibit the same framework fractures as zirconia. Cement choice and attention to the adhesive bonding systems used appear to be paramount to restoration longevity with both restoration subtypes. Furthermore, improved longevity can be seen when air particle abrasion is incorporated into the adhesive protocol. Within the limitations of this study, it has been determined that zirconia-based resin retained bridges can be effectively used in anterior cantilever bridges. Clinical Significance: Zirconia-based resin retained bridges have been demonstrating promising results in terms of improved success and survival characteristics, together with improved aesthetics when compared to non-precious metal winged resin retained bridges. Their popularity is increasing in the age of digital dentistry as many restorations are manufactured using such technology. It is essential that clinicians understand the limitations of each material type and principles of adhesion to ensure restoration longevity.

Keywords: resin retained bridge, fixed partial denture, zirconia bridge, adhesive bridge

Procedia PDF Downloads 69

Authors: F. Elhaouzi, H. Lahlali, M. Zaghrioui, I. El Aboudi A. BelfKira, A. Mdarhri

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The effect of physico chemical properties of solvents on the transport process and mechanical properties in elastomeric nano composite materials is reported. The investigated samples are formed by a semi-crystalline ethylene-co-butyl acrylate polymer filled with hard spherical carbon black (CB) nano particles. The swelling behavior was studied by immersion the dried samples in selected solvents at room temperature during 2 days. For this purpose, two chemical compounds methyl derivatives of aromatic hydrocarbons of benzene, i.e. toluene and xylene, are used to search for the mass and molar volume dependence on the absorption kinetics. Mass gain relative to the mass of dry material at specific times was recorded to probe the absorption kinetics. The transport of solvent molecules in these filled elastomeric composites is following a Fickian diffusion mechanism. Additionally, the swelling ratio and diffusivity coefficient deduced from the Fickian law are found to decrease with the CB concentration. These results indicate that the CB nano particles increase the effective path length for diffusion and consequently limit the absorption of the solvent by occupation free volumes in the material. According to physico chemical properties of the two used solvents, it is found that the diffusion is more important for the toluene molecules solvent due to their low values of the molecular weight and volume molar compared to those for the xylene. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray photo electron (XPS) were also used to probe the eventual change in the chemical composition for the swollen samples. Mechanically speaking, the stress-strain curves of uniaxial tensile tests pre- and post- swelling highlight a remarkably decrease of the strength and elongation at break of the swollen samples. This behavior can be attributed to the decrease of the load transfer density between the matrix and the CB in the presence of the solvent. We believe that the results reported in this experimental investigation can be useful for some demanding applications e.g. tires, sealing rubber.

Keywords: nanocomposite, absorption kinetics, mechanical behavior, diffusion, modelling, XPS, DSC

Procedia PDF Downloads 336

Authors: Shekoufeh Behdad, Amirhossein Yadegari, Leila Ghodrati, Saman Yadegari

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Context: Preoperative anxiety is a common psychological reaction experienced by all patients undergoing surgery. It can have negative effects on the patient's well-being and even impact surgical outcomes. Therefore, finding effective interventions to reduce preoperative anxiety is important in improving patient care. Research Aim: The aim of this study is to compare the effects of oral administration of zaleplon (5 mg) and alprazolam (0.5 mg) on preoperative anxiety levels in women undergoing gynecological abdominal surgery. Methodology: This study is a double-blind, randomized clinical trial conducted after receiving approval from the university's ethics committee and obtaining written informed consent from the patients. The night before the surgery, patients were randomly assigned to receive either 0.5 mg of alprazolam or 5 mg of zaleplon orally. Anxiety levels, measured using a 10-cm visual analog scale, and hemodynamic variables (blood pressure and heart rate) were assessed before drug administration and on the morning of the operation after the patient entered the pre-operation room. Findings: The study found that there were no significant differences in mean anxiety levels or hemodynamic variables before and after administration of either drug in both groups (P value > 0.05). This suggests that both 0.5 mg of alprazolam and 5 mg of zaleplon effectively reduce preoperative anxiety in women undergoing abdominal surgery without serious side effects. Theoretical Importance: This study contributes to the understanding of the effectiveness of alprazolam and zaleplon in reducing preoperative anxiety. It adds to the existing literature on pharmacological interventions for anxiety management, specifically in the context of gynecological abdominal surgery. Data Collection: Data for this study were collected through the assessment of anxiety levels using a visual analog scale and measuring hemodynamic variables, including systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial blood pressures, as well as heart rate. These measurements were taken before drug administration and on the morning of the surgery. Analysis Procedures: Statistical analysis was performed to compare the mean anxiety levels and hemodynamic variables before and after drug administration in the two groups. The significance of the differences was determined using appropriate statistical tests. Questions Addressed: This study aimed to answer the question of whether there are differences in the effects of alprazolam and zaleplon on preoperative anxiety levels in women undergoing gynecological abdominal surgery. Conclusion: The oral administration of both 0.5 mg of alprazolam and 5 mg of zaleplon the night before surgery effectively reduces preoperative anxiety in women undergoing abdominal surgery. These findings have important implications for the management of preoperative anxiety and can contribute to improving the overall surgical experience for patients.

Keywords: zaleplon, alprazolam, premedication, abdominal surgery

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Authors: Jigar N. Shah, Hiral J. Shah, Praful D. Bharadia

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The major challenge faced by formulation scientists in transdermal drug delivery system is to overcome the inherent barriers related to skin permeation. The stratum corneum layer of the skin is working as the rate limiting step in transdermal transport and reduce drug permeation through skin. Many approaches have been used to enhance the penetration of drugs through this layer of the skin. The purpose of this study is to investigate the development and evaluation of a combined approach of drug carriers and iontophoresis as a vehicle to improve skin permeation of an analgesic drug. Iontophoresis is a non-invasive technique for transporting charged molecules into and through tissues by a mild electric field. It has been shown to effectively deliver a variety of drugs across the skin to the underlying tissue. In addition to the enhanced continuous transport, iontophoresis allows dose titration by adjusting the electric field, which makes personalized dosing feasible. Drug carrier could modify the physicochemical properties of the encapsulated molecule and offer a means to facilitate the percutaneous delivery of difficult-to-uptake substances. Recently, there are some reports about using liposomes, microemulsions and polymeric nanoparticles as vehicles for iontophoretic drug delivery. Niosomes, the nonionic surfactant-based vesicles that are essentially similar in properties to liposomes have been proposed as an alternative to liposomes. Niosomes are more stable and free from other shortcoming of liposomes. Recently, the transdermal delivery of certain drugs using niosomes has been envisaged and niosomes have proved to be superior transdermal nanocarriers. Proniosomes overcome some of the physical stability related problems of niosomes. The proniosomal structure was liquid crystalline-compact niosomes hybrid which could be converted into niosomes upon hydration. The combined use of drug carriers and iontophoresis could offer many additional benefits. The system was evaluated for Encapsulation Efficiency, vesicle size, zeta potential, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), DSC, in-vitro release, ex-vivo permeation across skin and rate of hydration. The use of proniosomal gel as a vehicle for the transdermal iontophoretic delivery was evaluated in-vitro. The characteristics of the applied electric current, such as density, type, frequency, and on/off interval ratio were observed. The study confirms the synergistic effect of proniosomes and iontophoresis in improving the transdermal permeation profile of selected analgesic drug. It is concluded that proniosomal gel can be used as a vehicle for transdermal iontophoretic drug delivery under suitable electric conditions.

Keywords: iontophoresis, niosomes, permeation enhancement, transdermal delivery

Procedia PDF Downloads 360

Authors: Yasser R. Tawfic, Mohamed A. Eid

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Foundation differential settlement and supported structure tilting is an occasionally occurred engineering problem. This may be caused by overloading, changes in ground soil properties or unsupported nearby excavations. Engineering thinking points directly toward the logic solution for such problem by uplifting the settled side. This can be achieved with deep foundation elements such as micro-piles and macro-piles™, jacked piers and helical piers, jet grouted soil-crete columns, compaction grout columns, cement grouting or with chemical grouting, or traditional pit underpinning with concrete and mortar. Although, some of these techniques offer economic, fast and low noise solutions, many of them are quite the contrary. For tilted structures, with limited inclination, it may be much easier to cause a balancing settlement on the less-settlement side which shall be done carefully in a proper rate. This principal has been applied in Leaning Tower of Pisa stabilization with soil extraction from the ground surface. In this research, the authors attempt to introduce a new solution with a different point of view. So, micro-tunneling technique is presented in here as an intended ground deformation cause. In general, micro-tunneling is expected to induce limited ground deformations. Thus, the researchers propose to apply the technique to form small size ground unsupported holes to produce the target deformations. This shall be done in four phases: •Application of one or more micro-tunnels, regarding the existing differential settlement value, under the raised side of the tilted structure. •For each individual tunnel, the lining shall be pulled out from both sides (from jacking and receiving shafts) in slow rate. •If required, according to calculations and site records, an additional surface load can be applied on the raised foundation side. •Finally, a strengthening soil grouting shall be applied for stabilization after adjustment. A finite element based numerical model is presented to simulate the proposed construction phases for different tunneling positions and tunnels group. For each case, the surface settlements are calculated and induced plasticity points are checked. These results show the impact of the suggested procedure on the tilted structure and its feasibility. Comparing results also show the importance of the position selection and tunnels group gradual effect. Thus, a new engineering solution is presented to one of the structural and geotechnical engineering challenges.

Keywords: differential settlement, micro-tunneling, soil-structure interaction, tilted structures

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Authors: Somayeh Nezami

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The management of financial and human resources of police in metropolitans requires many information and exact plans to reduce a rate of crime and increase the safety of the society. Geographical Information Systems have an important role in providing crime maps and their analysis. By using them and identification of crime hot spots along with spatial presentation of the results, it is possible to allocate optimum resources while presenting effective methods for decision making and preventive solutions. In this paper, we try to explain and compare between some of the methods of hot spots analysis such as Mode, Fuzzy Mode and Nearest Neighbour Hierarchical spatial clustering (NNH). Then the spots with the highest crime rates of drug smuggling for one province in Iran with borderline with Afghanistan are obtained. We will show that among these three methods NNH leads to the best result.

Keywords: GIS, Hot spots, nearest neighbor hierarchical spatial clustering, NNH, spatial analysis of crime

Procedia PDF Downloads 307

Authors: Dnyandip K. Bhamare, Manish K Rathod, Jyotirmay Banerjee

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This paper aims to study performance of a thermosiphon solar water heating system with the help of the proposed analytical model. This proposed model predicts the temperature and mass flow rate in a thermosiphon solar water heating system depending on radiation intensity and ambient temperature. The performance of the thermosiphon solar water heating system is evaluated in the Indian context. For this, eight cities in India are selected considering radiation intensity and geographical positions. Predicted performance at various cities reveals the potential for thermosiphon solar water in India.

Keywords: solar water heater, collector outlet temperature, thermosyphon, India

Procedia PDF Downloads 233

Authors: Félix David Suárez Bonilla

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A sentiment analysis service to detect polarity (positive, neural, and negative), based on transfer learning, was built using a Spanish version of BERT and applied to tweets written in Spanish. The dataset that was used consisted of 11975 reviews, which were extracted from Google Play using the google-play-scrapper package. The BETO trained model used: the AdamW optimizer, a batch size of 16, a learning rate of 2x10⁻⁵ and 10 epochs. The system was tested using tweets of three presidential pre-candidates from Costa Rica. The system was finally validated using human labeled examples, achieving an accuracy of 83.3%.

Keywords: NLP, transfer learning, BERT, sentiment analysis, social media, opinion mining

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

Authors: Uchenna Bella Onu

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Violence has become a deadly plague in Nigeria and is spreading at an alarming rate. There is every indication that in a normal person, violence is not inborn but learned. Animated movies, which are designed to amuse and entertain children may contain a level of violence. These violent animated movies may affect the susceptible minds of children. This paper examines the effect of selected animated movies on Nigerian children. Sample is on Nigerian children aged seven and below. Method explored is participant observation with visual arts and visual technologies in a natural and familiar environment. Visual arts are used to draw out the innermost feelings of the young children. Findings show that animated movies have strong effect on Nigerian children. Whether the effect will be negative or positive depends largely on the content of the animated movies.

Keywords: animated movies, drawings, Nigerian children, videos, violence

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: Aroona Hashmi

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Student’s success in Mathematics and Science depends upon their learning attitude towards both subjects. It also influences the participation rate of the learner. The present study was based on a survey of high school students about their attitude towards Mathematics and Science at Secondary level. Students of the both gender constitute the population of this study. Sample of the study was 276 students and 20 teachers from 10 Government schools from Lahore District. Questionnaire and interview were selected as tool for data collection. The results showed that Pakistani students’ positive attitude towards learning Mathematics and Science. There was a significance difference between the students’ attitude towards learning Mathematics and no significance difference was found in the students’ attitude towards learning Science at Secondary level.

Keywords: attitude, mathematics, science, secondary level

Procedia PDF Downloads 451

Authors: Oluwaseun A. Oyetade, Roelof J. Kriek

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The development of effective catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great importance to combat energy-related concerns in the environment. Herein, we report a one-step solvothermal method employed for the fabrication of nickel selenide hybrids (NiSe-Ni₃Se₂) and a series of nickel selenide hybrid/multiwalled carbon nanotube composites (NiSe-Ni₃Se₂/MWCNT) as electrocatalysts for OER in alkaline media. The catalytic activities of these catalysts were investigated via several electrochemical characterization techniques, such as linear sweep voltammetry, chronoamperometric studies at constant potential, electrochemical surface area determination, and Tafel slope calculation, under alkaline conditions. Morphological observations demonstrated the agglomeration of non-uniform NiSe-Ni₃Se₂ microspheres around carbon nanotubes (CNTs), demonstrating the successful synthesis of NiSe-Ni₃Se₂/MWCNT nanocomposites. Among the tested electrocatalysts, the 20% NiSe-Ni₃Se₂/MWCNT nanocomposite demonstrated the highest activity, exhibiting an overpotential of 325 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA.cm⁻² in 0.1 mol.dm⁻³ KOH solution. The NiSe-Ni₃Se₂/MWCNT nanocomposites showed improved activity toward OER compared to bare NiSe-Ni₃Se₂ hybrids and MWCNTs, exhibiting an overpotential of 528, 392 and 434 mV for 10%, 30% and 50% NiSe-Ni₃Se₂/MWCNT nanocomposites, respectively. These results compare favourably to the overpotential of noble catalysts, such as RuO₂ and IrO₂. Our results imply that the addition of MWCNTs increased the activity of NiSe-Ni₃Se₂ hybrids due to an increased number of catalytic sites, dispersion of NiSe-Ni₃Se₂ hybrid nanoparticles, and electronic conductivity of the nanocomposites. These nanocomposites also demonstrated better long-term stability compared to NiSe-Ni₃Se₂ hybrids and MWCNTs. Hence, NiSe-Ni₃Se₂/MWCNT nanocomposites possess the potential as effective electrocatalysts for OER in alkaline media.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes, electrocatalysts, nanocomposites, nickel selenide hybrids, oxygen evolution reaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Mekha Mathew, Varun P Gopi

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Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (WCE) has become a great device in Gastrointestinal (GI) tract diagnosis, which can examine the entire GI tract, especially the small intestine without invasiveness and sedation. Bleeding in the digestive tract is a symptom of a disease rather than a disease itself. Hence the detection of bleeding is important in diagnosing many diseases. In this paper we proposes a novel method for distinguishing bleeding regions from normal regions based on Contourlet transform and Local Binary Pattern (LBP). Experiments show that this method provides a high accuracy rate of 96.38% in CIE XYZ colour space for k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN) classifier.

Keywords: Wireless Capsule Endoscopy, local binary pattern, k-NN classifier, contourlet transform

Procedia PDF Downloads 469

Authors: Olayide Ogunsiji, Glenda McDonald

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Engendering cultural competence in nursing and midwifery students is germane to reducing disparities in contemporary health care settings, increasingly patronized by people from diverse background. Professional standards for registration in Australia require nurses and midwives to be culturally competent. Nursing and midwifery academics worldwide are responsible for preparing students for clinical practice, yet limited attention is paid to exploring how students are being prepared to care for a culturally diverse population. This paper provides insight into the perceptions of academics about how they are preparing undergraduate nursing and midwifery students for culturally competent health care. Academics were drawn from a tertiary educational institution in metropolitan Australia. They responded to a generic email indicating their interest in participating in the study. A total of nine academics who have taught undergraduate nursing and midwifery students in a unit that focused on health and illness perspectives for culturally diverse communities; and provided written consent to participate were included. These academics were engaged in a qualitative digitally-recorded semi-structured face-to-face or telephone interviews which lasted for about 45-60 minutes. Interview data were transcribed verbatim. Through constant comparison, three themes emerged: experiences of the teachers, strategies used for preparing students and challenges in preparing students. The participants spoke about their experiences of teaching in the unit and with the students. They faced challenges related to physical and relational space. They utilised a number of didactic approaches in teaching the unit and critiqued the adequacy of the content in preparing students for practice. This study demonstrated that didactic classroom approaches need to be supported with clinical practice and cultural immersion for a meaningful preparation of nursing and midwifery students to care for culturally diverse populations.

Keywords: cultural competence, nursing students, preparation, undergraduate

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Maria Trimintziou, Michael Sakellariou, Prodromos Psarropoulos

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Nowadays, the exploitation of hydrocarbons reserves in deep seas and oceans, in combination with the need to transport hydrocarbons among countries, has made the design, construction and operation of offshore pipelines very significant. Under this perspective, it is evident that many more offshore pipelines are expected to be constructed in the near future. Since offshore pipelines are usually crossing extended areas, they may face a variety of geohazards that impose substantial permanent ground deformations (PGDs) to the pipeline and potentially threaten its integrity. In case of a geohazard area, there exist three options to proceed. The first option is to avoid the problematic area through rerouting, which is usually regarded as an unfavorable solution due to its high cost. The second is to apply (if possible) mitigation/protection measures in order to eliminate the geohazard itself. Finally, the last appealing option is to allow the pipeline crossing through the geohazard area, provided that the pipeline will have been verified against the expected PGDs. In areas with moderate or high seismicity the design of an offshore pipeline is more demanding due to the earthquake-related geohazards, such as landslides, soil liquefaction phenomena, and active faults. It is worthy to mention that although worldwide there is a great experience in offshore geotechnics and pipeline design, the experience in seismic design of offshore pipelines is rather limited due to the fact that most of the pipelines have been constructed in non-seismic regions (e.g. North Sea, West Australia, Gulf of Mexico, etc.). The current study focuses on the seismic design of offshore pipelines against active faults. After an extensive literature review of the provisions of the seismic norms worldwide and of the available analytical methods, the study simulates numerically (through finite-element modeling and strain-based criteria) the distress of offshore pipelines subjected to PGDs induced by active seismic faults at the seabed. Factors, such as the geometrical properties of the fault, the mechanical properties of the ruptured soil formations, and the pipeline characteristics, are examined. After some interesting conclusions regarding the seismic vulnerability of offshore pipelines, potential cost-effective mitigation measures are proposed taking into account constructability issues.

Keywords: offhore pipelines, seismic design, active faults, permanent ground deformations (PGDs)

Procedia PDF Downloads 565

Authors: Jaan-Willem Simon, Bertram Stier, Brett Bednarcyk, Evan Pineda, Stefanie Reese

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Textile composites, in which the reinforcing fibers are woven or braided, have become very popular in numerous applications in aerospace, automotive, and maritime industry. These textile composites are advantageous due to their ease of manufacture, damage tolerance, and relatively low cost. However, physics-based modeling of the mechanical behavior of textile composites is challenging. Compared to their unidirectional counterparts, textile composites introduce additional geometric complexities, which cause significant local stress and strain concentrations. Since these internal concentrations are primary drivers of nonlinearity, damage, and failure within textile composites, they must be taken into account in order for the models to be predictive. The macro-scale approach to modeling textile-reinforced composites treats the whole composite as an effective, homogenized material. This approach is very computationally efficient, but it cannot be considered predictive beyond the elastic regime because the complex microstructural geometry is not considered. Further, this approach can, at best, offer a phenomenological treatment of nonlinear deformation and failure. In contrast, the mesoscale approach to modeling textile composites explicitly considers the internal geometry of the reinforcing tows, and thus, their interaction, and the effects of their curved paths can be modeled. The tows are treated as effective (homogenized) materials, requiring the use of anisotropic material models to capture their behavior. Finally, the micro-scale approach goes one level lower, modeling the individual filaments that constitute the tows. This paper will compare meso- and micro-scale approaches to modeling the deformation, damage, and failure of textile-reinforced polymer matrix composites. For the mesoscale approach, the woven composite architecture will be modeled using the finite element method, and an anisotropic damage model for the tows will be employed to capture the local nonlinear behavior. For the micro-scale, two different models will be used, the one being based on the finite element method, whereas the other one makes use of an embedded semi-analytical approach. The goal will be the comparison and evaluation of these approaches to modeling textile-reinforced composites in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and utility.

Keywords: multiscale modeling, continuum damage model, damage interaction, textile composites

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Authors: Heikki Valmu, Eero Kupila, Raisa Vartia

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A major curricular reform was implemented in Metropolia UAS in 2014. The teaching was to be based on larger course entities and collaborative pedagogy. The most thorough reform was conducted in the department of electrical engineering and automation technology. It has been already shown that the reform has been extremely successful with respect to student progression and drop-out rate. The improvement of the results has been much more significant in this department compared to the other engineering departments making only minor pedagogical changes. In the beginning of the spring term of 2017, a thorough student feedback project was conducted in the department. The study consisted of thirty questions about the implementation of the curriculum, the student workload and other matters related to student satisfaction. The reply rate was more than 40%. The students were divided to four different categories: first year students [cat.1] and students of all the three different majors [categories 2-4]. These categories were found valid since all the students have the same course structure in the first two semesters after which they may freely select the major. All staff members are divided into four teams respectively. The curriculum consists of consecutive 15 credit (ECTS) courses each taught by a group of teachers (3-5). There are to be no end exams and continuous assessment is to be employed. In 2014 the different teacher groups were encouraged to employ innovatively different assessment methods within the given specs. One of these methods has been since used in categories 1 and 2. These students have to complete a number of compulsory tasks each week to pass the course and the actual grade is defined by a smaller number of tests throughout the course. The tasks vary from homework assignments, reports and laboratory exercises to larger projects and the actual smaller tests are usually organized during the regular lecture hours. The teachers of the other two majors have been pedagogically more conservative. The student progression has been better in categories 1 and 2 compared to categories 3 and 4. One of the main goals of this survey was to analyze the reasons for the difference and the assessment methods in detail besides the general student satisfaction. The results show that in the categories following more strictly the specified assessment model much more versatile assessment methods are used and the basic spirit of the new pedagogy is followed. Also, the student satisfaction is significantly better in categories 1 and 2. It may be clearly stated that continuous assessment and teacher cooperation improve the learning outcomes, student progression as well as student satisfaction. Too much academic freedom seems to lead to worse results [cat 3 and 4]. A standardized assessment model is launched for all students in autumn 2017. This model is different from the one used so far in categories 1 and 2 allowing more flexibility to teacher groups, but it will force all the teacher groups to follow the general rules in order to improve the results and the student satisfaction further.

Keywords: continuous assessment, course integration, curricular reform, student feedback

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Pei Yi Lin

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Objective: The objective of this study is to use machine learning methods to build an early prediction classifier model for acute delirium to improve the quality of medical care for intensive care patients. Background: Delirium is a common acute and sudden disturbance of consciousness in critically ill patients. After the occurrence, it is easy to prolong the length of hospital stay and increase medical costs and mortality. In 2021, the incidence of delirium in the intensive care unit of internal medicine was as high as 59.78%, which indirectly prolonged the average length of hospital stay by 8.28 days, and the mortality rate is about 2.22% in the past three years. Therefore, it is expected to build a delirium prediction classifier through big data analysis and machine learning methods to detect delirium early. Method: This study is a retrospective study, using the artificial intelligence big data database to extract the characteristic factors related to delirium in intensive care unit patients and let the machine learn. The study included patients aged over 20 years old who were admitted to the intensive care unit between May 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022, excluding GCS assessment <4 points, admission to ICU for less than 24 hours, and CAM-ICU evaluation. The CAMICU delirium assessment results every 8 hours within 30 days of hospitalization are regarded as an event, and the cumulative data from ICU admission to the prediction time point are extracted to predict the possibility of delirium occurring in the next 8 hours, and collect a total of 63,754 research case data, extract 12 feature selections to train the model, including age, sex, average ICU stay hours, visual and auditory abnormalities, RASS assessment score, APACHE-II Score score, number of invasive catheters indwelling, restraint and sedative and hypnotic drugs. Through feature data cleaning, processing and KNN interpolation method supplementation, a total of 54595 research case events were extracted to provide machine learning model analysis, using the research events from May 01 to November 30, 2022, as the model training data, 80% of which is the training set for model training, and 20% for the internal verification of the verification set, and then from December 01 to December 2022 The CU research event on the 31st is an external verification set data, and finally the model inference and performance evaluation are performed, and then the model has trained again by adjusting the model parameters. Results: In this study, XG Boost, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, and Decision Tree were used to analyze and compare four machine learning models. The average accuracy rate of internal verification was highest in Random Forest (AUC=0.86), and the average accuracy rate of external verification was in Random Forest and XG Boost was the highest, AUC was 0.86, and the average accuracy of cross-validation was the highest in Random Forest (ACC=0.77). Conclusion: Clinically, medical staff usually conduct CAM-ICU assessments at the bedside of critically ill patients in clinical practice, but there is a lack of machine learning classification methods to assist ICU patients in real-time assessment, resulting in the inability to provide more objective and continuous monitoring data to assist Clinical staff can more accurately identify and predict the occurrence of delirium in patients. It is hoped that the development and construction of predictive models through machine learning can predict delirium early and immediately, make clinical decisions at the best time, and cooperate with PADIS delirium care measures to provide individualized non-drug interventional care measures to maintain patient safety, and then Improve the quality of care.

Keywords: critically ill patients, machine learning methods, delirium prediction, classifier model

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Authors: Rino Gubiani, Gianfranco Pergher

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The work focused on the statistical analysis of accidents in the forestry sector (2000-2020) in Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, located in the North-East of Italy. The aim of the work was to analyse the evolution of the casualties throughout time and to evaluate possible improvements in the sector. It was shown that even nowadays the rate of accidents in forestry work is higher compared with all the other sectors, including agriculture; moreover, it was highlighted that some accidents remained present throughout the whole analysed range, such as slipping on the soil, being hit by trees and falling down from the plants. The results showed that an increase in forestry exploitation could even increase the total number of accidents, if advanced technological machines, such as cable cranes, would not implemented, given the fact that there is also a significant number of old people (above 50 years old) working in the sector.

Keywords: safety, forestry work, accidents, risk analysis, casualties, statistical analysis

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Authors: L. Salvati, D. Smiraglia, S. Bajocco, M. Munafò

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This paper focuses on Land Use and Land Cover Changes (LULCC) occurred in the urban coastal regions of the Mediterranean basin in the last thirty years. LULCC were assessed diachronically (1975-2006) in two urban areas, Rome (Italy) and Athens (Greece), by using CORINE land cover maps. In strictly coastal territories a persistent growth of built-up areas at the expenses of both agricultural and forest land uses was found. On the contrary, a different pattern was observed in the surrounding inland areas, where a high conversion rate of the agricultural land uses to both urban and forest land uses was recorded. The impact of city growth on the complex pattern of coastal LULCC is finally discussed.

Keywords: land use changes, coastal region, Rome prefecture, Attica, southern Europe

Procedia PDF Downloads 366

Authors: D. Aboutaleb, B. Safi

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The borate glasses are known by their structural characterized by existence of unit’s structural composed by triangles and tetrahedrons boron in different configurations depending on the percentage of B2O3 in the glass chemical composition. In this paper, effect of lithium oxide addition on the thermal and physical properties of an alumina borate glass, was investigated. It was found that the boron abnormality has a significant effect in the change of glass properties according to the addition rate of lithium oxide.

Keywords: borate glasses, triangles and tetrahedrons boron, lithium oxide, boron anomaly, thermal properties, physical properties

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Authors: Amar F. Siddique

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The Guwahati city is one of the fastest growing cities of the north-eastern region of India, situated on the South Bank of the Brahmaputra River falls in the highest seismic zone level V. The city has witnessed many high magnitude earthquakes in the past decades. The Assam earthquake occurred on August 15, 1950, of moment magnitude 8.7 epicentered near Rima, Tibet was one of the major earthquakes which caused a serious structural damage and widespread soil liquefaction in and around the region. Hence the study of ground motion characteristics of Guwahati city is very essential. In this present work 1D equivalent linear ground response analysis (GRA) has been adopted using Deep soil software. The analysis has been done for two typical sites namely, Panbazar and Azara comprising total four boreholes location in Guwahati city of India. GRA of the sites is carried out by using an input motion recorded at Nongpoh station (recorded PGA 0.048g) and Nongstoin station (recorded PGA 0.047g) of 1997 Indo-Burma earthquake. In comparison to motion recorded at Nongpoh, different amplifications of bedrock peak ground acceleration (PGA) are obtained for all the boreholes by the motion recorded at Nongstoin station; although, the Fourier amplitude ratios (FAR) and fundamental frequencies remain almost same. The difference in recorded duration and frequency content of the two motions mainly influence the amplification of motions thus getting different surface PGA and amplification factor keeping a constant bedrock PGA. From the results of response spectra, it is found that at the period of less than 0.2 sec the ground motion recorded at Nongpoh station will give a high spectral acceleration (SA) on the structures than at Nongstoin station. Again for a period greater than 0.2 sec the ground motion recorded at Nongstoin station will give a high SA on the structures than at Nongpoh station.

Keywords: fourier amplitude ratio, ground response analysis, peak ground acceleration, spectral acceleration

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Authors: Kossigan Bernard Dedey, David Grenier, Tiphaine Lucas

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Bread dough is often described as a dispersion of gas cells in a continuous gluten/starch matrix. The final bread crumb structure is strongly related to gas cell walls (GCWs) rupture during baking. At the end of proofing and during baking, part of the thinnest GCWs between expanding gas cells is reduced to a gluten film of about the size of a starch granule. When such size is reached gluten and starch granules must be considered as interacting phases in order to account for heterogeneities and appropriately describe GCW rupture. Among experimental investigations carried out to assess GCW rupture, no experimental work was performed to observe the GCW rupture in the baking conditions at GCW scale. In addition, attempts to numerically understand GCW rupture are usually not performed at the GCW scale and often considered GCWs as continuous. The most relevant paper that accounted for heterogeneities dealt with the gluten/starch interactions and their impact on the mechanical behavior of dough film. However, stress concentration in GCW was not discussed. In this study, both experimental and numerical approaches were used to better understand GCW rupture in bread dough during baking. Experimentally, a macro-scope placed in front of a two-chamber device was used to observe the rupture of a real GCW of 200 micrometers in thickness. Special attention was paid in order to mimic baking conditions as far as possible (temperature, gas pressure and moisture). Various differences in pressure between both sides of GCW were applied and different modes of fracture initiation and propagation in GCWs were observed. Numerically, the impact of gluten/starch interactions (cohesion or non-cohesion) and rheological moduli ratio on the mechanical behavior of GCW under unidirectional extension was assessed in 2D/3D. A non-linear viscoelastic and hyperelastic approach was performed to match the finite strain involved in GCW during baking. Stress concentration within GCW was identified. Simulated stresses concentration was discussed at the light of GCW failure observed in the device. The gluten/starch granule interactions and rheological modulus ratio were found to have a great effect on the amount of stress possibly reached in the GCW.

Keywords: dough, experimental, numerical, rupture

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Authors: Maryam Umar Ladan, Arshad Munir

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Poverty has always been a constant feature of society throughout history. It has existed in the lives of people and it is a fact that although the majority of people lives in poverty, the remaining minority lives in luxury. While some countries called the first World countries lives in luxury, the third World countries lives in poverty. It remains an undesirable phenomenon affecting a vast number of people across the globe despite governmental, institutional and private organizations’ interventions with measures aimed at cushioning its adverse effects. Unequal distribution of societal resources, accumulated wealth in the hands of few, lack of access to education and employment, individual responsibility among others, were highlighted as factors associated with poverty. Poverty predisposes the poor individual to malnutrition and starvation, exposure to disease, thereby resulting to violence, crimes, and experiencing lifelong problems. Evidence show that about 50 percent of the world population lives on less than 2.50 dollar a day, 90 percent of whom are from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia including countries where Islam is the major if not one adherent religion. As a solution to poverty, Islam prescribes a system of annual Zakat (charity). The Islamic law prescribes that every person who has a saving that reaches a certain limit should give out 2.5 percent of the total annual earning (as in income, money, farm produce) to deserving and prescribed citizens. This is to, among others; reduce the level of inequality through distribution of wealth among the Muslim Ummah (community). Furthermore, Islam encourages the rich in several places in the Qur’an to spend their wealth on poor people other than the compulsory 2.5%. Therefore, it is inarguable that the Islamic system of distribution of resources (as zakat) is the best strategy to poverty eradication. Thus, strongly recommended for desired results in poverty eradication efforts. If every rich person gives Zakat sincerely, poverty will be eradicated in the world, and not a single person will die of want of food or material things.

Keywords: Islam, charity, poverty, zakat

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Vibha Devi, Shabina Khanam

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Hemp (Cannabis sativa) possesses a rich content of ω-6 linoleic and ω-3 linolenic essential fatty acid in the ratio of 3:1, which is a rare and most desired ratio that enhances the quality of hemp oil. These components are beneficial for the development of cell and body growth, strengthen the immune system, possess anti-inflammatory action, lowering the risk of heart problem owing to its anti-clotting property and a remedy for arthritis and various disorders. The present study employs supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) approach on hemp seed at various conditions of parameters; temperature (40 - 80) °C, pressure (200 - 350) bar, flow rate (5 - 15) g/min, particle size (0.430 - 1.015) mm and amount of co-solvent (0 - 10) % of solvent flow rate through central composite design (CCD). CCD suggested 32 sets of experiments, which was carried out. As SFE process includes large number of variables, the present study recommends the application of resampling techniques for cross-validation of the obtained data. Cross-validation refits the model on each data to achieve the information regarding the error, variability, deviation etc. Bootstrap and jackknife are the most popular resampling techniques, which create a large number of data through resampling from the original dataset and analyze these data to check the validity of the obtained data. Jackknife resampling is based on the eliminating one observation from the original sample of size N without replacement. For jackknife resampling, the sample size is 31 (eliminating one observation), which is repeated by 32 times. Bootstrap is the frequently used statistical approach for estimating the sampling distribution of an estimator by resampling with replacement from the original sample. For bootstrap resampling, the sample size is 32, which was repeated by 100 times. Estimands for these resampling techniques are considered as mean, standard deviation, variation coefficient and standard error of the mean. For ω-6 linoleic acid concentration, mean value was approx. 58.5 for both resampling methods, which is the average (central value) of the sample mean of all data points. Similarly, for ω-3 linoleic acid concentration, mean was observed as 22.5 through both resampling. Variance exhibits the spread out of the data from its mean. Greater value of variance exhibits the large range of output data, which is 18 for ω-6 linoleic acid (ranging from 48.85 to 63.66 %) and 6 for ω-3 linoleic acid (ranging from 16.71 to 26.2 %). Further, low value of standard deviation (approx. 1 %), low standard error of the mean (< 0.8) and low variance coefficient (< 0.2) reflect the accuracy of the sample for prediction. All the estimator value of variance coefficients, standard deviation and standard error of the mean are found within the 95 % of confidence interval.

Keywords: resampling, supercritical fluid extraction, hemp oil, cross-validation

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Authors: Milind Chaudhari, Suhail Balasinor

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Due to massive deforestation and an ever-increasing population, the organic content of the soil is depleting at a much faster rate. Due to this, there is a big chance that the entire food production in the world will drop by 40% in the next two decades. Vertical farming can help in aiding food production by leveraging big data and cloud computing to ensure plants are grown naturally by providing the optimum nutrients sunlight by analyzing millions of data points. This paper outlines the most important parameters in vertical farming and how a combination of big data and AI helps in calculating and analyzing these millions of data points. Finally, the paper outlines how different organizations are controlling the indoor environment by leveraging big data in enhancing food quantity and quality.

Keywords: big data, IoT, vertical farming, indoor farming

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

Authors: Jirayut Phetchuen, Jongkol Srithorn

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The study examines the unloading and repacking process of Read With Me Group Company Limited. The research aims to improve the old work process and build a new efficient process with the Lean Technique and new machines for faster delivery without increasing the number of employees. Currently, two employees work based on five days on and off. However, workplace injuries have delayed the delivery time, especially the delivery to the neighboring countries. After the process improvement, the working space increased by 25%, the Process Lead Time decreased by 40%, the work efficiency increased by 175.82%, and the work injuries rate was reduced to zero.

Keywords: lean technique, plant layout design, U-shaped disassembly line, value stream mapping

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: Elena Maria Scalisi, Roberta Pecoraro, Martina Contino, Sara Ignoto, Carmelo Iaria, Santi Concetto Pavone, Gino Sorbello, Loreto Di Donato, Maria Violetta Brundo

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5G Technology is evolving to satisfy a variety of service requirements that may allow high data-rate connections (1Gbps) and lower latency times than current (<1ms). In order to support a high data transmission speed and a high traffic service for eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband) use cases, 5G systems have the characteristic of using different frequency bands of the radio wave spectrum (700 MHz, 3.6-3.8 GHz and 26.5-27.5 GHz), thus taking advantage of higher frequencies than previous mobile radio generations (1G-4G). However, waves at higher frequencies have a lower capacity to propagate in free space and therefore, in order to guarantee the capillary coverage of the territory for high reliability applications, it will be necessary to install a large number of repeaters. Following the introduction of this new technology, there has been growing concern over the past few months about possible harmful effects on human health. The aim of this preliminary study is to evaluate possible short term effects induced by 5G-millimeter waves on embryonic development and early life stages of Danio rerio by Z-FET. We exposed developing zebrafish at frequency of 27 GHz, with a standard pyramidal horn antenna placed at 15 cm far from the samples holder ensuring an incident power density of 10 mW/cm2. During the exposure cycle, from 6 h post fertilization (hpf) to 96 hpf, we measured a different morphological endpoints every 24 hours. Zebrafish embryo toxicity test (Z-FET) is a short term test, carried out on fertilized eggs of zebrafish and it represents an effective alternative to acute test with adult fish (OECD, 2013). We have observed that 5G did not reveal significant impacts on mortality nor on morphology because exposed larvae showed a normal detachment of the tail, presence of heartbeat, well-organized somites, therefore hatching rate was lower than untreated larvae even at 48 h of exposure. Moreover, the immunohistochemical analysis performed on larvae showed a negativity to the HSP-70 expression used as a biomarkers. This is a preliminary study on evaluation of potential toxicity induced by 5G and it seems appropriate to underline the importance that further studies would take, aimed at clarifying the probable real risk of exposure to electromagnetic fields.

Keywords: Biomarker of exposure, embryonic development, 5G waves, zebrafish embryo toxicity test

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Antonio Marco Miotti, Antonella Ruffatto, Giampaola Basso, Antonio Madia, Giulia Zavatta, Emanuela Salvatico, Emanuela Zilli

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A National Action Plan to fight antimicrobial resistance was launched in Italy in 2017. In order to reduce inappropriate exposure to antibiotics and infections from multi-drug resistant bacteria, it is essential to set up a structured system of surveillance and monitoring of the implementation of National Action Plan standards, including antimicrobial consumption, with a special focus on quinolones, third generation cephalosporins and carbapenems. A quantitative estimate of antibiotic consumption (defined daily dose - DDD - consumption per 100 days of hospitalization) has been provided by the Pharmaceutical Service to the Hospital of Cittadella, ULSS 6 Euganea – Health Trust (District of Padua) for the years 2019 (before the pandemic), 2020 and 2021 for all classes of antibiotics. Multidisciplinary meetings have been organized monthly by the local Antimicrobial Stewardship Group. Between 2019 and 2021, an increase in the consumption of carbapenems in the Intensive Care Unit (from 12.2 to 18.2 DDD, + 49.2%) and a decrease in Medical wards (from 5.3 to 2.6 DDD, - 50.9%) was reported; a decrease in the consumption of quinolones in Intensive Care Unit (from 17.2 to 10.8 DDD, - 37.2%), Medical wards (from 10.5 to 6.6 DDD, - 37.1%) and Surgical wards (from 10.2 to 9.3 DDD, - 8.8%) was highlighted; an increase in the consumption of third generation cephalosporins in Medical wards (from 18.1 to 22.6 DDD, + 24,1%) was reported. Finally, after an increase in the consumption of macrolides between 2020 and 2019, in 2021, a decrease was reported in the Intensive Care Unit (DDD: 8.0 in 2019, 18.0 in 2020, 6.4 in 2021) and Medical wards (DDD: 9.0 in 2019, 13.7 in 2020, 10.9 in 2021). Constant monitoring of antimicrobial consumption and timely identifying of warning situations that may need a specific intervention are the cornerstone of Antimicrobial Stewardship programs, together with analysing data on bacterial resistance rates and infections from multi-drug resistant bacteria.

Keywords: carbapenems, quinolones, antimicrobial, stewardship

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Shady Ahmed Emara

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Introductory statement: The temple is characterized by a unique engineering design. This study aimed to explain the means that were used to reach this design. Background of the Study: Temple of Dandara consists of 24 columns with a height of 18m and a diameter of 2m. This paper is about the engineering method for constructing these huge columns. Two experiments were conducted at the temple. The first experiment used AutoCAD to compare the similarity of the columns in terms of dimensions. The second experiment used a laser rangefinder to measure the extent of the match between the heights between the columns. The Major Findings of the Study: (1) The method of constructing the columns was through several divided layers. It is divided into two halves and built opposite each other to maintain the integrity of the columns. (2) The match between the heights of the columns, which reached the error rate between one column and another, is only 1 mm. Concluding Statement: Both experiences will be explained through 2D and 3D.

Keywords: ancient, construction, architecture, building

Procedia PDF Downloads 83